PlayStation Vita Worldwide Sales

At long last, PlayStation Vita is available worldwide. Despite the numerous difficulties the system has endured since it launched in Japan last December, the prevailing wisdom has been that prospects for Vita's international debut remained bright.

Sony, no doubt thrilled to have some genuinely positive Vita news to share, has now confirmed the wisdom of that line of reasoning by announcing that worldwide PlayStation Vita sales have exceeded 1.2 million units. Software sales are impressive, as well: more than 2 million Vita games have been sold across retail and PSN.

Curiously absent from Sony's media bulletin is any information on how many systems have been sold in each territory, or what the breakdown is between Vita's Wi-Fi and 3G models.

The PlayStation Vita First Edition Bundle released on February 15th, followed by the "official" release a week later. Backed by an impressive library of launch titles and a $50 million dollar marketing campaign (including a controversial Taco Bell promotion), the system's undeniably impressive technology appears to have won over skeptics, at least in the short term.

Sony Computer Entertainment's President and Group CEO, Andrew House, sings the system's praises and promises good things to come.

“PS Vita was designed to deliver the ultimate portable entertainment experience, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the reaction we’re seeing from consumers and the pace at which PS Vita is selling. The market has responded and there is clear demand for a mobile device capable of providing a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context.  To sustain momentum, we’re working closely with 3rd party developers and publishers to ensure the best games and franchises possible will be available on PS Vita, and our software line up for the remainder of 2012 will have something for everyone across the globe.”

Selling 1.2 million units in just over two months is no mean feat, and Sony has every reason to be proud of the achievement. That said, the lack of territory-specific sales numbers is perplexing. After all, Sony wasn't shy about revealing Vita's Japanese launch figures -- the system sold 325,000 units in its first 48 hours. Unfortunately, sales plummeted immediately thereafter, prompting some retailers to discount the 3G model. More recently, rumors began to surface that projects designed for Vita are being moved to Nintendo's 3DS.

Nevertheless, Sony has been staunch in defending Vita's sales, going so far as to cite its focus on Vita as one of the reasons it refuses to discuss PlayStation 4. Now that the system is on store shelves the world over, will Sony be able to move on from Vita's early difficulties and continue building momentum for the new handheld? And for those of you who own the system, what do you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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